Yara Shahidi's ELLE Women in Hollywood Speech: Storytelling Is a Way to Rewrite History

When Grown-ish star and Harvard student Yara Shahidi was honored at ELLE's 25th Women in Hollywood celebration this Monday, she used her time on stage to talk about the historical power of storytelling. The 18-year-old is an outspoken activist and self-proclaimed "nerd" who's already snagged the lead in her own sitcom. But she explained that it was through books that she was able to imagine her own future, one that wasn't held back by stereotypes or racism or sexism.

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Shahidi told the audience, "I didn't watch much TV or movies growing up, but I did read a whole lot. And I think because of that I didn't realize that there were barriers on my existence until I stepped out into the world, because in these books there were people from Africa, from Egypt, from Iran, from the '60s, from the '20s, from the 1800s, in which they're accomplishing amazing things, and so I thought, of course I can do the same."

She also extended a thank you to all the other actresses, writers, and producers in the room who "with their stories, have made it a little more possible for us to exist."

Read an extended excerpt from her acceptance speech, below:

As the nerd that I am, I'm going to go on a tangent, but it'll make sense in a second. I was reading Souls of Black Folkyesterday and also reading a couple books about the political state of America, and there was this term brought up, pseudo-patriotism, or the concept that theoretically in your ideals, you stand for the greater good of your country, but when it comes down to actually promoting plans that help subsidize education for other people, promoting plans in which you truly believe in equity, you're not there, you're not present, and you're not lending your voice. And it really, I think, speaks to the bigger picture of how we learn—this concept that we learn so much about ourselves but not of other people, and if you're a person of color, you don't even learn about yourself very often.

It speaks to also this concept of education, of knowing that I knew more about Napoleon Bonaparte by the age of eight than the Civil Rights Movement, knowing more about the whereabouts of Holden Caulfield before opening up the books of Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin. There's this familiarity that I've had to have with other culture [and] other cultures never had to be familiar with my being, and so I just have to say what inspires me consistently is the power of storytelling.

I didn't watch much TV or movies growing up, but I did read a whole lot, and I think because of that I didn't realize that there were barriers on my existence until I stepped out into the world, because in these books there were people from Africa, from Egypt, from Iran, from the '60s, from the '20s, from the 1800s, in which they're accomplishing amazing things, and so I thought, of course I can do the same. And just my very presence, being the product of a black and Iranian family, that not only speaks to a kind of love that transcends culture but a kind of love that can only give you hope because it is the unity of two trans-Atlantic peoples.

So I think, more than anything, we need storytelling because it's a sort of supplementary history. It is a history in which we are able to bring the nuance in places in which nuance is not allowed. We are able to say to everybody who goes through their AP History classes, or any kind of history, never actually sees the names that remind them of their families' last names, "Look at your stories, because we have been invested in you." And it's that feeling of investment that also normalizes a feeling of belonging. I think that at the center of every great movement have been storytellers.

We've been people who decided to push past the concept of pseudo-patriotism because the basis of storytelling—and I may seem utopic in my ideals—is this concept of worth, of looking at other people and saying, "You're worthy of being listened to, and you're worthy of being heard." And while we are fighting for equity, an equity that I've greatly benefited from and equity in which I am able to dream even bigger than I could've even imagined, we also fight for an equity amalgamation. Of being able to wake up and where—many people have had to choose which identity we fight for—saying we're going to fight for you as a whole human. You're no longer going to have to wake up and choose between the discrimination of being a woman, or a woman of color, or an immigrant, or of the LGBTQ community, of the Labor Rights Movement. No matter what movement you decide to associate with, we are going to fight for you as a full human. Because you should be allowed the space to enter as a full, whole person. And so I just have to say, thank you to everyone in this room who, with their stories, have made it a little more possible for us to exist, and thank you for everyone who's been so committed, whether as producers or as people in front of the camera. Because who are we if not each other?

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